The ex-New England Patriots tight end on Wednesday was sent to prison for killing friend Odin Lloyd in June 2013 in industrial park only one mile from his home and leaving the body in an unused area where it was found the following day.
The sentence was handed down only half an hour after the guilty verdict was announced, as is the custom in Massachusetts murder trials.
The verdict was delivered after a nine-week trial and 34 hours of deliberations over seven days. The life sentence was automatic and comes without the possibility of parole. Hernandez will serve his time at the MCI-Cedar Junction Prison, in Walpole, Massachusetts.
Hernandez, flanked by three lawyers, stood emotionless as his fate was read aloud in the courtroom and confirmed by all 12 jurors. The 25-year-old was also found guilty of unlawful weapons and ammunition possession charges.
The members of Hernandez’s legal team continued to stand as Hernandez sat and the color drained from his face after the announcement, one appearing to rub his back while the judge thanked the jury for its service.
Hernandez’s only sign of emotion came when he turned to face Shayanna Jenkins, his fiancée. Jenkins was sitting in the front row of the courtroom, directly behind Hernandez.
Both Jenkins and Terri Hernandez, the former football player’s mother, burst into tears upon hearing the verdict. Neither stayed in the courtroom to hear the formal sentencing.
Ten court officers in Courtroom 7. Hernandez holding back tears, eyes red, mouths, “It will be okay” to fiancee in front row.
— Kevin Armstrong (@KevinGArmstrong) April 15, 2015
Hernandez, before being led to holding cell, to fiancee, “Stay strong, stay strong.”
— Kevin Armstrong (@KevinGArmstrong) April 15, 2015
Ursula Ward, Lloyd’s mother, spoke just before the sentence was formally read aloud. The slain man was her only son.
“The day I laid my son to rest I felt my heart stop beating,” she said. “I felt like I wanted to walk into hole myself.
“I will never get to dance at his wedding,” Ward continued. “I will never have a grandchild from my son … I forgive.”
The fallen star is headed to prison for life, but his legal troubles are far from over.
#AaronHernandez's old home on the left and his new home on the right at MCI-Cedar Junction in Walpole, MA pic.twitter.com/eVDNleLlXQ
— John Bell (@NewsBell) April 15, 2015
He still has to stand trial in connection to the 2012 drive-by killing of two other men, Safiro Furtado and Daniel Abreu, outside a Boston nightclub. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty to murder charges in that case.
Authorities previously said they believed Lloyd, a semi-pro football player dating Jenkins’ sister at the time, was killed because he knew of Hernandez’s involvement in the Boston homicides. His lifeless body was found by investigators with six gunshot wounds.
Hernandez’s legal team acknowledged during the trial that Hernandez witnessed the slaying but said he did not commit the act because doing so would end his NFL career.
A former teammate of Tim Tebow’s at the University of Florida, Hernandez had signed a $40 million contract shortly before the nightclub killings and may have even played in games after they took place, prior to fatally shooting Lloyd.
This article was originally published on Business Insider. Copyright 2015.
